TikTok may get group chat feature this year as ByteDance looks to take on Facebook

TikTok: Short video-sharing platform TikTok could be launching a group messaging feature this year. The Chinese app, which is currently banned in India, would become a more direct competition for platforms like Facebook if the feature is indeed launched. As per reports, TikTok’s parent ByteDance has included the feature of group messaging in its plan to develop the platform into an app that facilitates more social interactions. There could be some truth to these reports as the group messaging feature is included in Douyin, the Chinese TikTok version, from 2019. The feature would help in increasing the user engagement on the app.

The app is highly popular among teenagers and young-adults, and it has also been expanding the live-streaming feature and the e-commerce offerings. The group chats would allow influencers to interact with their followers more easily.

Apparently, ByteDance had been having discussions of introducing group chat features last year, but had to put several updates on hold after the erstwhile Trump administration in the US and India placed bans on it. At the moment, however, the platform is assessing when and where the feature would be launched. The reports have come as current US President Joe Biden has halted the government lawsuit that would have banned the use of TikTok in the US, which is a very big market for the app.

The app has also received a boost from the fact that the Biden government is, at least for now, not following on the footsteps of former President Donald Trump, who had said that in order for TikTok to operate in the US, ByteDance would have to sell the US operations of the platform to investors based in the US itself, since Trump had been wary of the fact that TikTok could pose a threat to the national security.

However, it is not likely that the group chats feature would be encrypted.